Driver who killed Abdallah children in Sydney car crash fails final offer for reduced sentence

The drunk and drugged driver who killed four children walking down a Sydney footpath to buy ice creams has failed in his latest attempt to have his sentence reduced.

The Supreme Court on Friday denied special leave to hear Samuel William Davidson’s appeal, alleging that he had been given an unfair amount of jail time for improper use of sentencing principles.

Davidson was driving erratically and too fast when he hit Veronique Sakr, 11, and her cousins, Sienna Abdallah, eight, and her siblings Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13.

The professional lorry driver drove into them after his vehicle hit a curb at Oatlands, Sydney’s northwest, on February 1, 2020.

Samuel Davidson was initially sentenced to 28 years in prison in April 2021 with a non-parole period of 21 years (pictured, Davidson’s post-crash arrest)

Stephen Odgers SC, representing Davidson, said Davidson was of good character beforehand and the offense led to his first time in custody.

This meant he had a good chance of being rehabilitated.

He said how parole and non-parole periods were determined in relation to the length of a sentence meant that people with a better chance of rehabilitation were worse off.

“It is very strange that someone with good prospects is worse off than someone with poor prospects,” the lawyer told the court.

“But in NSW, good prospects for rehabilitation hurt you.”

Odgers added that if the case went to trial, the defense would raise the issue of Davidson’s ADHD, but conceded that this was not a basis on which the appeal should be allowed.

Davidson was re-sentenced to a 20-year term with 15 years non-parole after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal concluded that his original term was manifestly excessive.

He was initially given a 28-year sentence in April 2021 with a non-parole period of 21 years.

Davidson had pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter and to charges related to injuries to three other children in the crash.

Samuel William Davidson failed in his last attempt to have his sentence reduced after killing three members of the Abdallah family (above) and their cousin

Crown Prosecutor Helen Robertson SC said the differences between the two verdicts “do not demonstrate fundamentally different principles” nor were they a problem for the law applied in NSW.

“There’s no right sentence,” she said.

“It is at the discretion of the sentencing judge.”

Robertson pointed out that most sentences in the lower courts were reduced due to special circumstances, but acknowledged that Odgers was referring to long sentences.

In her statement of reasons for the denial, Chief Justice Susan Kiefel said the appeal was unlikely to be successful.